Vice President Lien Chan (
Responding to remarks by Chinese president Jiang Zemin (
"Macau is a former colony and so is Hong Kong. But we are not," Lien told a meeting of supporters.
Jiang on Monday vowed Taiwan would soon be reunited with China under the "one country, two systems" formula guaranteeing autonomy for Macau, a former Portuguese territory, and Hong Kong, which was a British territory until 1997.
"This marks the significant progress made by the Chinese people in accomplishing the great task of national reunification," Jiang said at the Macau handover ceremony just after midnight.
"The implementation of the concept of `one country, two systems' in Hong Kong and Macau has played and will continue to play an important exemplary role for our eventual settlement of the Taiwan question," Jiang said.
Cross-strait officials in Taiwan, however, said Chinese leaders were out of touch with reality.
"To the people in Taiwan who have long enjoyed democracy and freedom, the extended application of `one country, two systems' to Taiwan is both humiliating and provocative," a statement released yesterday by the Mainland Affairs Council said.
Leaders in China have used the model -- first made public by Deng Xiaoping (鄧?p?) in 1984 -- in an attempt to reign Taiwan in, while overlooking the "reality of the longstanding separated rule across the Strait," the statement said.
Political analysts, however, said such grand statements were just part of the pomp of the Macau handover ceremony, and expected little else to follow leading up to the elections in March.
That is, they said, unless Taiwan becomes too assertive.
"For the most part they [China's leaders] will be studying the situation and trying to figure out what kind of a reaction they will have for each candidate if they are elected," said Wu Guoguang (吳國光), a political science professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
China will probably hold out until February, and then see what the election conditions are like before exerting its influence, said Julian Kuo (3╞翰G), a political science professor at Soochow University.
Kuo said he expected China would be keeping a closer eye on President Lee Teng-hui (
Kuo said he expected that most of the concern over the current Soong money scandal would have blown over by February and security issues would be a reliable button to push to sway voters.
By creating some kind of situation that appeared to be threatening, "Lien could show his strength because he would be in control," Kuo said.
Wu also noted that he had expected Lee to make another move, but now doubted such a move would come, especially now that the scandal over James Soong's (
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
A strong cold air mass is expected to arrive tonight, bringing a change in weather and a drop in temperature, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The coldest time would be early on Thursday morning, with temperatures in some areas dipping as low as 8°C, it said. Daytime highs yesterday were 22°C to 24°C in northern and eastern Taiwan, and about 25°C to 28°C in the central and southern regions, it said. However, nighttime lows would dip to about 15°C to 16°C in central and northern Taiwan as well as the northeast, and 17°C to 19°C elsewhere, it said. Tropical Storm Nokaen, currently
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
PAPERS, PLEASE: The gang exploited the high value of the passports, selling them at inflated prices to Chinese buyers, who would treat them as ‘invisibility cloaks’ The Yilan District Court has handed four members of a syndicate prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and two months for their involvement in a scheme to purchase Taiwanese passports and resell them abroad at a massive markup. A Chinese human smuggling syndicate purchased Taiwanese passports through local criminal networks, exploiting the passports’ visa-free travel privileges to turn a profit of more than 20 times the original price, the court said. Such criminal organizations enable people to impersonate Taiwanese when entering and exiting Taiwan and other countries, undermining social order and the credibility of the nation’s
RSS